The present invention relates to a protective glove for medical personnel designed to prevent the wearer from accidentally penetrating his or her skin when handling needles. More particularly, the present invention relates to a glove for medical personnel which provides protection from needles and, at the same time, does not significantly interfere with their use of their hands.
Accidents occur when medical personnel are handling needles and particularly when medical personnel attempt to resheath the needle after use. Accidents have occurred whereby the needle enters the sheath at an angle, penetrates the plastic sheath and pricks the user. Also, accidents occur when the needle misses the sheath entirely and sticks the sides of the finger, the thumb or the snuff-box region of the hand.
Needle-handling injuries are particularly dangerous to medical personnel who run the risk of exposure to disease. Highly communicable diseases such as hepatitis-B, and AIDS have caused serious concern to medical personnel treating patients affected by these diseases. Each of these diseases can be communicated to medical personnel as a result of an accidental injury when handling a contaminated needle which has been used to take blood samples or administer intravenous liquids to a patient.
Typically, an intravenous therapy nurse must locate a suitable blood vessel in a patient's limb, normally the arm, by palpating the body part. This requires maximum tactility at the fingerprint area of the index and middle fingers of the nurse in order to locate a suitable blood vessel. Upon location of the blood vessel, the nurse inserts a hypodermic needle through the skin into the vessel to inject a fluid or withdraw the patient's blood which, in either case, contaminates the needle. Once the procedure is complete, the needle is generally resheathed and discarded.
Needlestick protection for surgeon's glove is also needed to protect the wearer against accidental needlestick. Fifty-three percent of all needlestick injuries to surgeons involve the index finger of the non-dominant hand. Two hundred and two (202) surgeons. working in the New York City metropolitan area were surveyed as to the frequency of needlesticks during performance of surgery. One hundred seventy-three (173), or 86%, of the surgeons reported at least one puncture injury in the preceding year. Twenty-five percent of the surgeons sustained yearly injury rates of nine or more during per 1,000 operating room hours.
A present method of providing hand protection is the surgeon's sterile latex glove which prevents contact with the patient's body fluids and provides a sterile membrane to protect the patient from contamination by the surgeon. By intention, the thickness of the latex glove is minimal to assure tactility of the wearer. This is especially important since in many cases the operation's success is dependent on the surgeon's ability to feel the patient's organs. The latex offers no real protection from accidental needlestick or from needle burn wherein the needle accidentally drags across the latex glove and cuts through the glove wall. Two pairs of latex gloves are being worn in many instances and is referred to as double gloving.
A more recent glove protection development for surgeons is a metal mesh glove such as the ARMOR-TOUCH glove. The metal mesh glove is worn over top of a latex glove and is then covered by a second latex glove. The metal mesh glove provides protection against accidental cutting from surgical blades. However, it does not provide puncture protection from the tip of a No. 11 blade or from needlesticks, and needlesticks are the most common danger for the surgical team.
Another recently developed surgeon's glove "BIOSURG" is knitted of stainless steel filaments and worn in the same arrangement as the metal mesh glove, between latex gloves on the hand. Although the glove is tightly knitted, needlestick protection is limited by the openings of the knit pattern.
Yet another glove recently developed for the surgeon which is knitted of polyethylene fibers is VIGARD developed by Allied Signal Incorporated The polyethylene fiber knitted glove is worn by surgeon and covered by a sterile latex glove. The polyethylene fiber is very cut resistent, but the knitted construction of the glove does not provide needlestick protection for the wearer.
The three surgeon's gloves described above degrade the tactility of the surgeon and do not provide needlestick protection. The weight of the metal knit and metal mesh gloves can accelerate fatigue during long surgical procedures.
A wide variety of protective gloves are also known in the art, each of which is designed for its own particular purpose. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,416,026 (Smith) issued on Nov. 22, 1983, discloses a multi-purpose mechanic's glove. This glove can be constructed of leather, heat-resistant materials, coated fabrics or combinations of these materials. The glove includes padding to protect the back of the hand, a removable gauntlet which may be joined to the glove with Velcro tape, slide actuated fasteners, straps or buttons, and a plurality of holes in the fingertip and palm areas of the glove. The glove provides a workman with hand protection and also allows him to feel the tools or work parts being handled.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,507,807 (Karkanen) issued on Apr. 2, 1985, discloses a work glove finger structure. The glove is constructed from a fabric coated with a suitable material such as neoprene or nitrile butyl rubber. High sensitivity glove tips are attached to a loose-fitting glove by sewing, vulcanizing or gluing. The high-sensitivity tips are made of neoprene or nitrile butyl rubber and are used at the thumb, index finger and middle finger. A high-friction band of silicone rubber is attached within the finger stall of the glove or molded in the high-sensitivity fingertip covering. The band provides a means for keeping the thin rubber fingertip drawn taut over the fingerprint area to assure improved tactility for the glove wearer.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,016 (Luevano) issued on Nov. 25, 1986, discloses an athletic glove with built-in cushioning. A leather glove with a cushion layer and innermost leather layers sewn inside the glove's palm to capture the cushioning material is disclosed. The athletic glove provides impact protection to the wearer's palm.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,309,476 (Patterson, Jr.) issued on Jan. 26, 1943, discloses a glove constructed of leather. The palm side of the glove is formed of two layers of leather cemented together. The inner layer is perforated prior to cementing the outer layer. The cemented layer assembly is then perforated in selected regions for ventilation of the wearer's hand. A partial vacuum results due to the inner layer perforations between the hand and the glove, improving the wearer's grip.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,387,306 (Korey) issued on Jun. 11, 1968, discloses a golf glove constructed of kid's skin, calf skin or kangaroo skin. The glove is assembled of leather by stitching. The glove covers the entire surface of the wearer's hand with the exception of the exposure of the thumb extending from just below the knuckle and exposure of the index finger extending from just below the second knuckle from the fingertip. The glove wearer's sense of touch is improved by the absence of glove coverage of portions of the thumb and index finger. The wearer can use the glove with appropriate golf clubs for both driving and putting without removing the glove.
The foregoing are examples of gloves known in the art which exhibit one or more features which may be useful to medical personnel wearing gloves to prevent accidents when handling needles. However, none of these gloves are satisfactory for use by medical personnel who must palpate to locate a suitable blood vessel and also have sufficient protection for their hands to avoid an accidental needle prick.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved glove design and method for making such a glove which may be used by medical personnel when handling needles to prevent accidental injuries which might result in exposure to infectious diseases.